Coherent Hydrophone Line-Array for Marine Animal Acoustic Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional marine mammal monitoring systems are limited in area coverage, unreliable for detecting certain species, and require extensive time and resources, especially when monitoring larger areas or diverse marine mammal populations.
Innovation Solution
A passive marine animal monitoring system utilizing a coherent horizontal line-array of hydrophone elements in sub-apertures for spatially and temporally unaliased sensing of acoustic signals, enhancing detection range and localization accuracy through coherent beamforming, and transforming acoustic data into detailed marine animal information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If conventional passive monitoring systems use a single hydrophone or sparse hydrophone system, then the system complexity is low, but the area coverage is limited to less than 100 square kilometers
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system is divided into multiple hydrophone elements (at least 10, preferably 20-50 elements) arranged in a coherent horizontal line-array, with further segmentation into sub-apertures (e.g., 2-10 sub-apertures with 2-20 elements each). This segmentation enables the system to cover larger areas while maintaining manageable complexity through modular processing of each sub-aperture's data.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from sparse, distributed hydrophone placement to a continuous coherent line-array configuration, adding spatial dimensionality to the monitoring coverage. This dimensional enhancement allows the system to effectively monitor areas exceeding 100 square kilometers by creating a distributed sensing network that maintains coherent spatial relationships across the entire array.
2Measurement precision
If conventional monitoring systems use few hydrophone elements, then the device complexity is low, but the detection range and localization accuracy are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The line-array is segmented into multiple sub-apertures, each processing acoustic signals independently before combining results. This segmentation allows the system to achieve high localization accuracy for each sub-aperture while reducing the computational complexity of processing the entire array simultaneously, making the system feasible with 20-50 total elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses at least 10 hydrophone elements (preferably 20-50), which exceeds the minimum requirement for basic passive monitoring. This excessive action provides redundant measurements that enhance localization accuracy through improved signal-to-noise ratio and multiple geometric baselines for triangulation, while the sub-aperture processing keeps the system complexity manageable.
3Productivity
If conventional monitoring systems operate with limited hydrophone arrays, then the loss of time is low per survey location, but the overall productivity for large area monitoring is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The coherent line-array configuration enables continuous acoustic monitoring across the entire array simultaneously, rather than sequentially scanning limited areas. Multiple hydrophone elements operate continuously to detect and localize marine mammals across more than 100 square kilometers, maintaining uninterrupted surveillance that improves productivity without extending survey time.
Solution Approach 2:
By dividing the array into sub-apertures that can be processed independently and combined, the system achieves large-area coverage through parallel processing of multiple spatial zones. This segmentation allows the system to maintain high productivity across extensive areas without requiring proportional increases in survey time, as each sub-aperture contributes simultaneously to the overall monitoring output.
4Reliability
If conventional systems use sparse hydrophone placement, then the device complexity is low, but the reliability for monitoring diverse marine mammal species is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the hydrophone array into multiple sub-apertures (2-10 sub-apertures with 2-20 elements each), enabling reliable detection of diverse marine mammal species through spatially distributed sensing. Each sub-aperture provides independent detection capability, and their combined data improves species identification reliability while keeping individual sub-aperture complexity manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs at least 10 hydrophone elements (preferably 20-50 elements), exceeding the minimum for basic monitoring. This excessive number of elements provides redundant detection pathways and improved signal processing capability, enhancing reliability for detecting diverse species with different acoustic signatures while maintaining feasible system complexity through sub-aperture processing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables continuous monitoring of marine animals over large areas with improved detection range and accuracy, providing comprehensive temporal-spatial distributions and behavior analysis of diverse species, significantly surpassing conventional methods in coverage and reliability.
Implementation Method 1
an acoustic receiver array comprising a plurality of hydrophone elements in a coherent horizontal line-array arranged in a plurality of sub-apertures for spatially unaliased and temporally unaliased sensing of acoustic signals
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are apparatus, devices, and methods for monitoring marine animals, such as whales, and other marine mammals, and fish groups within a marine environment. A marine animal monitoring system may include an acoustic receiver array having a high-resolution directional sensing capacity using large-aperture densely-sampled coherent ocean acoustic receiver arrays operative to enhance detection range and localization accuracy of marine mammal vocalizations and fish acoustic signals. The acoustic receiver array may generate acoustic signal information based on acoustic signals sensed at the array. The marine monitoring system may operate to generate marine animal information based on the acoustic signal information, such as marine animal location, species, call type, and/or the like.